«Danza de Cóndores» Cabeza del Cóndor, Cara Este

On July 15, Juvenal and Sergio Condori left Condoriri base camp at 3 a.m., and after ascending the glacier toward Pequeño Alpamayo, they crossed the watershed between Pico Tarija and Wyoming (a.k.a. Huallomen), descended the far side, and traversed beneath the northern flanks of Wyoming. Escaping from the bottom of the glacier on the northern flank of the watershed proved more difficult than expected, and involved careful downclimbing of loose rock. The brothers reached the base of the east face of Cabeza del Cóndor (5,648m) at 9 a.m. and found the conditions worse than expected. They had hoped to simul-climb sections of the central line of weakness, but immediately found themselves belaying 60m pitches. Loose rock and stonefall proved a problem, and they encountered sections of ice up to 80°. In strong wind they reached the summit ridge at 3:30 p.m.; hurrying to keep warm, they arrived at the top an hour later. They descended to base camp by the normal route along the southwest ridge and reached La Paz the same day. The route was named Danza de Cóndores (700m, TD AI5). The extent of previous exploration on this remote face is not clear: There are rumors it might have been climbed by Poles, but the line is unknown. [There are several reports of parties climbing new routes on the "east face," but it seems more likely they refer to the much shorter southeast face].